I am so thankful not to have joined the likes of Abraham Lincoln, Barry White, Beethoven and Hitler, who died at age 56. Tomorrow I turn 57.
A few weeks prior to birthday 56 I was diagnosed with Non Hodgkin’s Lymphoma, which was a downer at my family birthday party. We didn’t know what lay ahead. [...]
Entries from July 2009
July 28, 2009
Not Dead At 56
July 24, 2009
Faith and Doubt
If you picture God as a powerful magnet the poles would be faith and doubt. Between them they create an invisible force field that affects people differently. Some are oblivious to the tension while others are drawn off balance one way or the other depending on which pole they are closer to.
There is no [...]
July 20, 2009
Tour de Vie
I’ve been following the Tour de France, primarily because of the return to the epic race of Lance Armstrong, 7-time winner and cancer survivor. He’s currently in 2nd place. Not bad for a 37-year-old geezer. (The oldest winner so far was 36-year-old Firmin Lambot in 1922.)
This 96th Tour is comprised of 21 stages over 23 [...]
July 17, 2009
Stage Mom or Jedi Mentor?
One thing that tripped up my walk of faith the last few years has been a dearth of experiencing God in daily life (see Jehovah’s Bystander). The spiritual realm flattened into a dark, silence place. Prayers became monologues. Faith, hope and love shriveled into a brittle bunch of dehydrated flowers.
In retrospect, part of the problem [...]
July 14, 2009
30,000 Visits to OPEN Mike
This is a small number of visits on the net and some mindless YouTube videos get that many in an hour but I’m humbled by the 30,000 times people have come by to see how I’m doing and what I’m thinking.
Thanks for praying, caring and sharing.
I’m four weeks out from my bone marrow transplant and [...]
July 10, 2009
Startling Cancer Facts
The Threat:
Cancer will affect one person in three before age 75.
Cancer and its complications will kill one person in four.
Cancer causes 12% of all deaths on Earth = 7 million.
10 million North Americans have cancer; 600,000 will die from it this year.
There are 10 million new cases of cancer worldwide annually, on the rise to [...]
July 8, 2009
Back to Base Camp
I had my exit interview and Hickman Line out Monday and a few more tests done before I got to come home yesterday. It’s great to be back in the Springs and to sleep in my own bed.
The transplant was a success. My bone marrow was destroyed and my “clean” stem cells engrafted. They are [...]
July 5, 2009
Cardboard Treasures
Susan and I brought a big project with us to work on during the long, lazy afternoons post stem cell transplant. It is sorting through three huge bins of photographs from the last half century and we (i.e. Susan) are almost done.
Our pre-digital-age snaps stretch back to the days of square pieces of cardboard with [...]
